Posts Tagged ‘thin value bet’

The second installment of my trip report from the main event of the 2010 World Series of Poker, covering Days 3 and 4, has just been published in the September issue of 2+2 Magazine. Here’s an excerpt:

I came into Day 4 with a monster stack relative to the field. I had over 500,000 chips, when the average was about 180,000, ranking me 27th among the more than 1,200 players who remained. Day 4 was a particularly good day for this, as it was also the day that would separate the players who would win nothing from those who would take home at least $19,000. With 747 players to be paid, no one wanted to be eliminated in 748th place (or 762nd, for that matter), which meant that most people were playing more conservatively than usual.  Read the complete post...

My One Minute Recommendation- The Poker Blueprint gets an 8.5/10 for content but a 5/10 for presentation. It contains plenty of great material for players who need help beating smaller stakes online short-handed games, but I fear the often terse, jargon-laden explanations will be too confusing or overwhelming for many players who would otherwise benefit greatly from reading it.

Had Tri Nguyen and Aaron Davis published their e-book The Poker Blueprint several years ago, I would have recommended it in the strongest possible terms. It’s reminiscent of the Cardrunners videos of that era: an opportunity to peer into the mind of a great player but with no real effort at teaching rather than simply reciting information. The information is valuable, no doubt, but processing and making use of it will require a lot of work on the part of the reader. In this day and age, the same material is available in more user-friendly books and videos, so while the content of The Poker Blueprint is easily good enough to warrant the $47 price tag, I can’t offer a whole-hearted endorsement.  Read the complete post...

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($3902.35)
SB ($1434)
BB ($911.25)
Hero (UTG) ($2747)
MP ($1000)
CO ($1242.25)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with A, J
Hero bets $40, 2 folds, Button calls $40, 2 folds

Flop: ($95) J, 4, 8 (2 players)
Hero bets $77, Button calls $77

Turn: ($249) A (2 players)
Hero bets $222, Button calls $222

River: ($693) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $555, Button raises to $1850, Hero folds

Total pot: $1803 | Rake: $3

Results:
Button didn’t show
Outcome: Button won $1800

Pretty gross spot. I feel like he actually shouldn’t be raising low flushes, since I could easily have the nuts myself. Maybe he has the straight flush? On the other hand it’s also a weird spot for him to turn a hand into a bluff, since again I could easily have a flush. Ultimately his aggression wasn’t that high, and I’m at the bottom of my value range, so I folded suspiciously.

…and not necessarily a good one.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $50.00 BB (2 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) ($5664)
SB ($8603)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 8, K
SB calls $25, Hero checks

Flop: ($100) K, 2, Q (2 players)
Hero bets $66, SB calls $66

Turn: ($232) 10 (2 players)
Hero bets $187, SB calls $187

River: ($606) J (2 players)
Hero bets $411, SB calls $411

Total pot: $1428 | Rake: $0.50

Results:
SB had 10, 2 (two pair, tens and twos).
Hero had 8, K (one pair, Kings).
Outcome: SB won $1427.50

Then again, he did call me with a relatively weak hand, so I guess I sort of had the right read. Then again again, he’s a lot more likely to get to the river with a weak two pair than with a weak one pair.

What a run. In the last two days I’ve 20x’ed my chips without ever seeing TT, QQ, KK, or AA. I did have AK quite a few times today, though, and I connected with a few flops when it counted.

I stole more than my share of pots for a few hands, then made a questionable 4-bet shove with AKo. UTG+1 had raised to 2500, and I called with AKo next to his act. Then Brian Jensen re-raised to 8500, the raiser folded, and I shoved like 55K. He snap-called with KK, and then though I turned a flush draw, I couldn’t get there on the river. I probably should have just 3-bet the original raiser, and that would have had the added advantage of being able to get away if Brian cold 4-bet. Anyway, that didn’t help.  Read the complete post...

Villain is a high-stakes MTT and SNG player who’s recently been sitting in the shallow high-stakes cash games as well. Despite his success, my opinion of him is that he makes a lot of borderline-bad calls and shoves. Probably I just think that because historically he’s run well vs. me in tournaments. This is the best example I could find in 2 minutes, which isn’t really that bad but is a good example of him being a little psycho and opening a can of run-good on me:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $50.00 BB (6 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB ($2500)
UTG ($2595)
MP ($4341)
Hero (CO) ($2573)
Button ($6413)
SB ($3456)

Preflop: Hero is CO with K, A
UTG bets $100, 1 fold, Hero raises to $250, Button raises to $663, 3 folds, Hero raises to $2573 (All-In), Button calls $1910

Flop: ($5321) 4, Q, K (2 players, 1 all-in)  Read the complete post...

This is one of my favorite spots for an overbet, either with a very strong hand like this or with a draw, because Villain’s hand is so clearly defined as marginal showdown value. To be honest, given what he shows up with, I don’t understand why he raised the turn:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $20.00 BB (5 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($3703)
Hero (BB) ($5075)
UTG ($2374)
MP ($2080)
Button ($2000)

Preflop: Hero is BB with K, 5
3 folds, SB bets $60, Hero calls $40

Flop: ($120) 2, 5, 5 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $88, SB calls $88

Turn: ($296) 6 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $377, SB raises to $877, Hero calls $500

River: ($2050) A (2 players)
SB bets $330, Hero raises to $4050 (All-In), SB calls $2348 (All-In)

Total pot: $7406 | Rake: $2  Read the complete post...

It freaking sucks to river the second nuts and have to make a crying call with it. I’m pretty surprised the guy wasn’t more aggressive with it when I showed so much weakness on the turn, but I can’t see what else he plays like this on the river, let alone what worse hand would call a raise.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (3 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($1314)
BB ($1000)
Hero (Button) ($1473)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 6, 5
Hero bets $20, 1 fold, BB calls $10

Flop: ($45) J, 7, K (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($45) 4 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $15, BB calls $15

River: ($75) 8 (2 players)
BB bets $60, Hero calls $60

Total pot: $195 | Rake: $1

Results:
Hero had 6, 5 (straight, eight high).
BB had 10, 9 (straight, Jack high).
Outcome: BB won $194